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'The whole street is dying' - Moore Street traders feel they're being wiped out

Marie Cullen has been working beneath scaffolding on Moore Street for the past year.

TheJournal.ie / YouTube

MARIE CULLEN IS a third generation Moore Street trader.

For over 20 years she’s sold fruit and veg from her stall in the heart of inner city Dublin to anyone who came by.

In that time she’s watched her street change as the years passed and many of the traders packed up their stalls and left the area.

For decades, making a living has been hard work for the Moore Street traders. A proposed regeneration and development of the area has been stalled for many years.

Anti-social behaviour – including public drinking and drug taking and selling illegal tobacco – is also rife on Moore Street and the surrounding laneways.

Add to this the fact that there are no dedicated public toilets for the traders, no street lights for them to operate under on dark nights, and big name supermarket brands operating very close by.

IMG_20170119_120304 Planning on Moore Street has a long and complex history Cormac Fitzgerald / TheJournal.ie Cormac Fitzgerald / TheJournal.ie / TheJournal.ie

For Marie, trading has always been a family affair. Her husband Tom Holbrook is at the stall with her every day. Her children help out regularly, selling fruit and veg and helping stock up the stall. However, she doesn’t believe they’ll continue the family work line when she retires.

So, life has never been easy working on Moore Street; but for the past year, Marie says, it has been almost impossible.

Every day for over 12 months a black mass of scaffolding has loomed large behind Marie, pushing her out onto the street. She has about 4ft to work on and is regularly knocked into and has her feet rolled over by trolleys and buggies.

Standing behind the scaffolding is one of Ireland’s designated National Monuments: Nos 14-17 Moore Street. These are the buildings from which the Irish rebels led by Padraig Pearse surrendered in Easter 1916.

IMG_20170119_115740 The scaffolding looming up behind Marie's stall and others. Cormac Fitzgerald / TheJournal.ie Cormac Fitzgerald / TheJournal.ie / TheJournal.ie

“All day there are people pushing by and trying to squeeze past, it’s a nightmare,” Marie tells TheJournal.ie this week.

Over a year now it’s been like this and there’s absolutely nothing being done.

To make matters worse, construction recently started on extending the shop fronts on the exterior of the ILAC Shopping Centre across the street.

Planning permission was granted in November 2015 for works to be carried out in order to upgrade the shop facades on the exterior of the centre facing onto Moore Street.

The work is being done to modernise and upgrade the storefront to make way for new higher-end retail units and cafes.

Marie recognises that the work has to be done, but after a year of trying to sell her goods in front of scaffolding on one side of the street, she feels completely boxed in.

“There’s no space when we’re setting up in the morning and there’s non-stop drilling all day,” she says.

We’re finding it very, very hard.

IMG_20170119_120201 The scaffolding on the storefronts outside the ILAC Centre. Cormac Fitzgerald / TheJournal.ie Cormac Fitzgerald / TheJournal.ie / TheJournal.ie

Works

The scaffolding behind Marie first went up last January in order to convert the run down buildings of the National Monument into a commemoration centre in time for the Easter Rising centenary celebrations in March.

The Monument – much like Moore Street – has been at the centre of a protracted and hard-fought dispute between Dublin City Council and the national government on one side, and activists under the common banner of Save Moore Street on the other (many of them relatives of those who fought in 1916).

The proposed works were going to interfere with other buildings on Moore Street, which the government has long-argued aren’t historically important. However Save Moore Street activists dispute this, and last year fought to put a halt to the construction.

They took a court order against the works and in March they scored a huge victory when the High Court ruled that the entire of Moore Street was to be designated a historical battlefield site.

download (1) Protesters occupying the buildings in Moore Street in January. RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

As a result the Government is not permitted to interfere with the buildings. Officials from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht have appealed the High Court decision, with the case due to be heard in December of this year.

The scaffolding remains 

TheJournal.ie first spoke to Marie in July last year. She was angry and frustrated then, and felt that the Moore Street traders had been forgotten about in the the debate over the future of the area.

Despite the High Court decision on March, the scaffolding had stayed standing behind her. The Government had been granted permission by the High Court to carry out important repair work on the buildings.

download (2) The scaffolding in July. Cormac Fitzgerald / TheJournal.ie Cormac Fitzgerald / TheJournal.ie / TheJournal.ie

“I’m losing money everyday while nothing is being done,” she said at the time.

We spoke to her again before Christmas, when the streets thronged with shoppers and the dark conditions were making it very hard to work.

The scaffolding still hadn’t budged and Marie said that her business was down by about 50% in the 11 months since in had gone up.

“You just feel like no one cares one bit about us – and that’s just it,” she said.

marie M When we spoke to Marie in December she said she was at her wits' end. TheJournal.ie TheJournal.ie

When we speak the Marie this week, the construction across the road has exacerbated her frustration and worries.

She says she’s been told that that will continue for about four months. Meanwhile, the scaffolding remains towering behind her, with no sign of it being completed.

A spokesperson for the Heritage Department told TheJournal.ie in December that the remedial works had to do with fixing the roofs of the buildings and were due to be completed by this month.

Marie says that she’s been told it will be mid-February by the time the scaffolding comes down. She says the traders understand the need for the works and the regeneration of the street.

“But we’ve been told different things by different people the whole time,” she says. “It just gets to the point that you can’t trust anyone anymore.”

The whole street is dying and we’re all struggling.

As she speaks, the drilling across the road continues unabated, drowning out her voice.

Read: “I’m losing money every day while nothing is being done… it’s a nightmare” – How Moore Street’s traders have been forgotten about

Read: ‘You just feel like no one cares one bit about us’ – Moore Street traders working in the shadows of history

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50 Comments
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    Mute iohanx
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    Jun 10th 2017, 7:06 AM

    All public sector jobs, salaries and allowances should be made public on a ‘live’ website for everyone to see. Full transparency right across the sector. Then taxpayers can perform real comparisons instead of these flaky reports every once in a while. Anything paid for by the taxpayer should be transparent in realtime. It can be done.

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    Mute iohanx
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    Jun 10th 2017, 7:08 AM

    no more aggregation! the tech exists.

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    Mute Nick Allen
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    Jun 10th 2017, 8:08 AM

    @iohanx:

    Why? Surely people are entitled to some privacy.

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    Mute iohanx
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    Jun 10th 2017, 9:35 AM

    @Nick Allen: people are, job titles/descriptions – no

    46
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    Mute john doe
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    Jun 10th 2017, 10:15 AM

    @iohanx

    Here you go:
    http://www.impact.ie/your-sector/public-sector/civil-service/civil-service-salary-scales/

    Don’t know if the health salaries are on there but some public service sectors are. I’m sure if you do some searching you will find the info you are after.

    It’s best to do a little google search to check before posting things from your head.

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    Mute Catherine Gaffney
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    Jun 10th 2017, 10:38 AM

    @iohanx: Look up the INMO website for nurses salaries and allowances . Transparent.

    1
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    Mute john Appleseed
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    Jun 10th 2017, 6:31 AM

    Paid for what exactly? HSE is a mess. It’s time to bite the bullet. Disband and start from stretch.

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    Mute Steve Austin
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    Jun 10th 2017, 7:13 AM

    @john Appleseed: Jobs for the boys…

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    Mute Stephen Coveney
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    Jun 10th 2017, 6:24 AM

    Ok, so what did they do? Were they worth the money? Are they a consultant on which lives depend and if we dont pay them this amount of money will they leave??

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    Mute Murf
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    Jun 10th 2017, 9:15 AM

    @Stephen Coveney: no they won’t leave. They won’t earn that kind of money anywhere in the world, Disgraceful to pay that amount of money to any individual & people on waiting lists for years, simply they are not worth it

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    Mute Paul
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    Jun 10th 2017, 10:01 AM

    @Murf: yes they will…

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    Mute Joe Harbison
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    Jun 10th 2017, 10:57 AM

    @Murf: About 350 vacant Consultant posts nationally. In some hospitals the problem is so bad that the hospitals’ futures are in serious medium or long term doubt. The can’t get Consultants on standard rates and instead pay multiples for locus who don’t have to take any associated responsibilities

    19
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    Mute Bennythekid
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    Jun 10th 2017, 7:12 AM

    why is HSE director Tony O Brien getting the same salary as the Taoiseach-sure all he does is come on the telly now and again to do a bit of spoofing-mind you that’s much the same job description as the Taoiseach.

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    Mute Colin Brady
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    Jun 10th 2017, 7:51 AM

    This is a joke huge salaries for a third world health service while the rest of use work just as hard of not harder for pennies.
    What can we do to stop this? ??

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    Mute Stephen Chaney
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    Jun 10th 2017, 3:32 PM

    @Colin Brady: I wouldn’t quite call it a 3rd world health service.
    http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)30818-8/fulltext
    That’s a recent lancet report showing Ireland is 13th for health access and quality index. We’re ahead of countries like USA, and the UK.
    Despite the long emergency dept and outpatient wait times, we have a health service that will basically pay for anything with evidence of helping you, and most people agree that it works well once you do manage to get seen.
    Consultants are extremely well paid, but then they are very intelligent people who have worked extremely hard to do what they do, and whether we like to believe it or not, there are better opportunities for them in other English speaking countries, so many posts here will go unfilled.

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    Mute Lydia McLoughlin
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    Jun 10th 2017, 7:15 AM

    What’s a rest day payment?? I get a salary and earn holiday pay! Surely these are part and parcel of an overall salary…..

    109
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    Mute Stephen Coveney
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    Jun 10th 2017, 7:30 AM

    @Lydia McLoughlin: just saw that too?? And they get paid for them if they dont take them..

    53
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    Mute Living The Laws
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    Jun 10th 2017, 11:23 AM

    @Stephen Coveney: its in every part of the civil service. retire at sixty, nice little lump sum, massive % of salary as pension, get a part time job. kick back and relax while the private sector and, more so, the self employed, stress themselves to death about what will happen to them in later life.

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    Mute Lydia McLoughlin
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    Jun 12th 2017, 2:59 PM

    @Stephen Coveney: no wonder my blood pressure is constantly up! Level the playing field and let there be no public and private sectors just one big employed sector and stop these stupid payments to this drain on society!!! My rest day is Saturday & Sunday and lucky to get much rest on these days let alone get paid!!!!

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    Mute Paul O Riordan
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    Jun 10th 2017, 7:56 AM

    It’s a great country for some people

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    Mute billy Dorney
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    Jun 10th 2017, 7:19 AM

    Scandalous

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    Mute PVD
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    Jun 10th 2017, 8:00 AM

    Are the HSE in compliance with FEMPI ? Or are these Topup’s outside standard pay terms and conditions for Public services. the disclosures in St John of God HSE Audit that the Journal haven’t covered ??? Governance of All organisations and Companies . We need to question why ?

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    Mute PVD
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    Jun 10th 2017, 8:10 AM

    @PVD: €60 million on legal and professional fees .

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    Mute Dermot Doherty
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    Jun 11th 2017, 10:00 AM

    @PVD: most of extra cash is for doing extra services outside of their normal working week. For example clearing an endoscopy waiting list by working on a Saturday. Also if you have to cover the work of an empty post then you should be paid. There arr hundreds of unfilled posts but the patients still have to be seen. Many doctors are working 1.5 times what they are contracted to do

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    Mute Finn Mc Cool
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    Jun 10th 2017, 9:14 AM

    “Our Health Service is underfunded”
    Now we see why.

    55
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    Mute Sinead Mooney
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    Jun 10th 2017, 9:29 AM

    The HSE continue to pay exorbitant locum rates for extra consultants because they refuse to restore pay parity after cutting salary by 30% during austerity.
    Now nobody will (rightly) take consultant positions where they will have to do the same work as their colleagues for 30% less pay.
    So the HSE spend even MORE paying the same doctors locum rates to fill the posts temporarily instead of backing down and paying everyone equally. (Bit like the way they refuse to pay a small increase in rent allowance to prevent homelessness but will then fork out for hotel rooms to accomodate the same families…)
    No wonder there are hundreds of unfilled consultant posts and long waiting lists. I won’t be taking one until equal pay is restored.

    53
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    Mute Living The Laws
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    Jun 10th 2017, 11:20 AM

    @Sinead Mooney: inefficient to say the least

    but lets be clear; most of them are overpaid for the job they do. they need to be taken down a peg or two and helped realise that they are a part of society and that serve society. they are a clique, a cartel. along with the pharmacists who insist on dispensing branded drugs. none of them working in the public interest.

    19
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    Mute Sean @114
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    Jun 10th 2017, 12:06 PM

    @Living The Laws: lets get the facts on the table, complete transparency on expenditure so that informed decisions can be made. No point in speculating as to who got what and at what rates, those figures are scandalous no matter how God like the top consultants think they are. Get the figures out for all, allowances, o/t, pension lump sum payments – we know that these are crocks of gold but let’s see the numbers.

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    Mute Living The Laws
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    Jun 10th 2017, 12:46 PM

    @Sean @114:

    sure, lets sit down and look at it. form a committee. populate it with our buddies so we can pay them some of the gold also. in two years, lets have an inquiry. and on and on

    no sean, witch hunts don’t work when the entire thing is a coven of incompetence. heads should roll now.

    and simon harris will be first. good timing for Leo, don’t you think?

    3
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    Mute brian magee
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    Jun 10th 2017, 8:26 AM

    Remember it was Michael Martin that created the HSE and this mess.

    57
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    Mute Sean @114
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    Jun 10th 2017, 8:59 AM

    The poor underpaid and overworked hospital consultants. God help them. Would their union not push for a pay rise for them before they head off to Australia? Let’s get some transparency on the allowances, overtime and pension lump sum payments. Categories of staff and average pay outs would be a start. Let’s also see the absenteeism rate. The unions spin enough yarns about their poor underpaid members. Let’s get the facts on the table.

    39
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    Mute FacelessJuniorDoctor
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    Jun 10th 2017, 10:08 AM

    The new consultant contract is €110,000 pa so I doubt that those very high earners were standard consultants or maybe not even medical consultants at all. Do we know if they were HSE in house?

    24
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    Mute Gisbert Bayertz
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    Jun 10th 2017, 10:12 AM

    You wouldn’t mind if the HSE was a properly functioning organisation

    18
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    Mute marty johnbann
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    Jun 10th 2017, 7:14 AM

    They must off been sick or something to be given all that money

    35
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    Mute Cindy Crawford
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    Jun 10th 2017, 10:22 AM

    Who in the HSE is paid more than the director general?

    13
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    Mute Living The Laws
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    Jun 10th 2017, 11:17 AM

    a health service that makes you feel sick. now thats as irish as it gets.

    110,000 staff. theres something wrong. very wrong. farmer gael really have managed the recovery into a disaster and given two fingers to the back breaking and soul destroying efforts of the citizens of ireland.

    15
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    Mute Robot
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    Jun 10th 2017, 12:23 PM

    @Living The Laws: what in gods name does that mean?

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    Mute Living The Laws
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    Jun 10th 2017, 12:58 PM

    @Robot:

    i guess it is a little confusing without context.

    everywhere you look are signs that farmer gael have managed to miss the opportunity to build on the sacrifice of the citizens. when you look at how poor the services are in the hse, and how expensive they are, you have to conclude there is something very wrong. look at medicines and pharmacies purposely providing branded instead of generics. or the mark up that primary care services charge on top of the government government contribution.

    add to that, so many payments that are beyond anything that should be paid to these guys in the HSE, and you have to think someone is on the gravy train at the expense of the citizens.

    and it is all farmer gael’s fault. plain and simple. they are accountable.

    any better?

    6
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    Mute Maire
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    Jun 10th 2017, 12:38 PM

    A disgrace! I’m a Public Servant, I can’t believe it! Shocking!

    9
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    Mute Mark Trudgeon
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    Jun 10th 2017, 12:26 PM

    So around 3k spent for every person in the country (give or take)

    4
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    Mute Dermot Doherty
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    Jun 11th 2017, 9:55 AM

    @Lydia McLoughlin: a rest day payment is to pay doctors who were working on call without enough colleagues to relieve them. E.g. If you worked 73 hrs over a weekend, you should have had the Monday off, but because there was no one to see patients on Monday the same doctor had to do it. This went on for decades and these older consultants never got their time back in lieu. So the HSE had to either allow them to take early retirement or lay them for these hours retrospectively. In fairness no one should work for free and these doctors propped up services for decades before they got new colleagues to ease the burden

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    Mute Scundered
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    Jun 10th 2017, 3:29 PM

    Just disgusting.

    4
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